Our Friend Raymond

Our fun, witty friend gave up his liver transplant search on Tuesday. More than a year ago it was his choice to forego a transplant and just quietly slip away. Finally in February he changed his mind and agreed to attempt a transplant search but it turned out to be too late. He added so much humor and laughter to our family over the past 35 years and we are surely going to miss the good times. If we can just reminisce about half of the past experiences we will still laugh a lot.

The people are pouring in and out of their home this week. Claire has everything handled and the funeral Saturday should be as Raymond planned. He took care of all the details down to the music he liked.

The four grandsons have been together quite a bit the past week. The three young ones are periodically biting one another while at the same time tattling on their biting cousins. They use two word sentences, “Miles bites”, “Peyton bites” and “Walker bites” so we have to add the “No bite” to their names. Lucas gives them occasional hugs and says he likes babies. That’s easy for him to say as he doesn’t get bitten.

Jill and I visited on the phone the other day. She went skydiving yet again but hopefully she’s done with that kind of fun. Their family has a week’s vacation at Chiwawa so they are in the water every day. Gayle is trying to get her neck surgery healed and then they are off to Australia with Ron and Dorena.

September 1 is quickly approaching and I know Leslie wants to learn that is the day we leave. I am taking neither camera nor binoculars. You’ll have to show me the photos later. Any last minute words of advice, like see if my cancellation insurance will kick in?